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"I guess what compelled me was justice. That's it," Olveira-Paiva, with the help of a translator, said in an exclusive interview with KETV NewsWatch 7's Ryan Luby.

Goncalves-Santos later confessed to police and testified against his co-worker and friend, Jose Olveira-Coutinho, who's scheduled to go to trial in September. Authorities said the third suspect, Elias Lourenco-Batista, is still free in Brazil, and the Douglas County district attorney is fighting to get him back. The three are accused in the December 2009 killings of the Szczepaniks.

Investigators said Christopher Szczepanik was 7 when he died and was dumped into the Missouri River with his parents, Jaqueline and Christopher Szczepanik. Had it not been for Olveira-Paiva, authorities have said it could have been a cold case.

Through her Portuguese translator, Olveira-Paiva said her husband called her in early December 2009 while she was at home in Brazil.

"At the beginning, he told me that his friend -- Carlos -- was asking him to do the plot to, what you say in Brazil, to get the person, so they were going to jump on him," Olveira-Paiva said.

Olveira-Paiva said, and prosecutors have said, the plot was over money her husband and his co-workers felt they were owed.

"I told him that (it) was not an option, that he was going to get in trouble for that," Olveira-Paiva said.

Weeks later, Olveira-Paiva said she found out her husband and his co-workers did something through another phone call.

"He only mentioned that they have gotten Vanderlei," Olveira-Paiva said.

Olveira-Paiva said the next phone calls she got were from Omaha police, and she told them what she knew. She and her two children, now ages 7 and 8, were devastated.

"As husband, as father, he was a good husband, a good father, and actually, when everything happened, we were all shocked he would be capable to do such thing," Olveira-Paiva said

Oliveira-Paiva said she met Goncalves-Santos nine years ago while she worked at a bakery in their Brazilian hometown. She said he was regular customer.

Olveira-Paiva said her husband's confession, she has become closer with the Szczepanik's oldest daughter, Tatiane Klein, who's grateful for her testimony and also that of Olveira-Coutinho's wife, Patricia.

"I have nothing against the ladies. I know they are here for the same reason I am here, to try to help solve the case," Klein said.